Geis of the Gargoyle by Piers Anthony Page A

shorter and far less sturdy.   His head diminished and his teeth shrank into tiny dull pegs, almost useless for combat.   His forepaws became weak fleshy digits with pale flat nails.   And his wings, 0 horrors, disappeared entirely.   He felt naked.   But he wasn't; there was a cloth covering hanging on his torso.
     
    Iris surveyed him.   "Well, that's an improvement.   He makes a halfway handsome young man." She turned to Trent.   "Now it's my turn."
     
    'To be sure." Trent handed her a vial containing a clear liquid.   "Drink and be merry, my dear."
     
    She almost snatched it and put it to her lips, gulping it down.   Then she stood there, unchanged.
     
    "Perhaps we should dispense with the illusion for the nonce," Trent suggested.
     
    "Oh.   Yes," she agreed.
     
    Then the mushroom reappeared around them, and the water of the pool.   But the shriveled old woman was gone.   Now there stood a woman in the most vibrant flush of human youth.   The effect was diminished somewhat by her clothing, which hung on her body in some places and was stretched painfully tight in others.
     
    "Perhaps you should change your dress," Trent suggested with three-quarters of a smile.
     
    Iris looked down at herself.   "Yes.   Out with you both while I see to some alterations."
     
    "Oh, we have no objection if you prefer to strip now and remake your outfit," Trent said.
     
    "Out!" she cried.
     
    "Women tend to be unreasonable for no particular reason," Magician Trent remarked as they stepped out and heard the mushdoor slam closed behind them with a squishy sound.
     
    But Gary had problems of his own.   The moment he took a two-legged step he lost his balance.   He wasn't used to this vertical positioning.
     
    Trent steadied him with a hand.   "You can do it," he said reassuringly.   "Most of my transformations have no trouble; the ways of their bodies are inherent.   But you have had your natural form for centuries, so may be a bit set in your ways.   Emulate me." He strode a few steps, turned, and strode back.
     
    Gary started a stride, tilted over, caught himself, and veered off the other way.   But in a few steps he began to get the hang of it.   It was after all possible to walk this way, however awkward it seemed.
     
    "Soon you will not even notice the difference," the Magician reassured him.   "But your intellectual adjustment may be more difficult.   You have human form now, but your spirit remains gargoyle."
     
    Already Gary was learning.   He found that he did best when he simply let his body handle motion, instead of trying to dictate to it.   The human form required constant balancing, but seemed to have inherent mechanisms to accomplish this.   He also found that he had to be careful of the clothing, which tended to snag on things in ways that stone fur did not.   He would have preferred simply to remove the clothing and be natural, as before, but realized that this was not the human way.   All human beings he had seen were dressed, and though parts of their flesh showed, the central torsos seldom did.
     
    The mushdoor opened and Iris emerged.   Now her clothing fit, being tight around her narrow waist, loose around her upper torso, and flaring around her slender legs.   Gary was of course no judge of human anatomy, but he suspected that she was now a reasonably aesthetic example of her species.
     
    "You look ravishing, my dear," Magician Trent said politely.   "Youth becomes you."
     
    "Thank you," Iris said, and smiled at him.   She looked nice when she did that, for a human.   Even her hair, which had been whitish and straggly before, when not enhanced by illusion, was now a rich reddish brown, and it flopped in loose curls about her shoulders.
     
    "Now I think you must be on your way," the Magician said.   "We do not know what dme constraints are in operation."
     
    Iris looked as if she might wish to linger in the pool somewhat longer, but did not argue.   "How do we find